Indicating and identifying means



w. GANL EY INDI'CATI'NG AND IDENTIFYING MEANS.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 20, I9I8.

Patented May 3, 1921.

W] NESSES NVENTOR Z other army UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM GANLEY, OF PITTSBURGH, 'PENNSYLVANIEA, ASSIGNOB TOTBADIUM DIALCOMPANY, OF PITT$BUBGH, PENNSYLVANIA.

DTDICATING AND IDENTIFYING MEAN S.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 3, 1921.

hereby declare the ollowing to be a full,

clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enableothers skilled in the art to which it appertams'to make and use thesame.

This inventionrelates to indicating and identifying means, andparticularly to such as are adaptable for use on vehicles.

It frequently happensin war zones that trains of arm motortrucks arerequired to travel at nig t in close order and without lightsover roadscomparatively close to the enemys lines, and when the night is very darkconsiderable danger is encountered in preventing collisions and othermishaps, and furthermore, the identity of the trucks cannot readily bedetermined in the dark. Similar conditions may arise with vehiclestraveling singly orin groups, and also with boats;

The object of my invention is to provide means whereby the diflicultiesand danger heretofore encountered under the conditions above outlinedmay be overcome and yet afford an indicator on thevehicle which can beseen from a limited distance to denote the presence and location of thevehicles and also denote the identity of the branch of the service towhich belong.

With this and other objects in view, the invention consists in certainnovel features of construction and combinations of parts as hereinafterset forth and pointed out in the claim.- 7

In the. accompanying drawings, Figure 1 I is a sectional'viewillustrating my improvements, and Fig. 2 is a face view.

1 represents a frame or back plate which' may be made of sheet steelpressed into shape and said plate is provided with lugs 2 somewhatoffset from the plane 'of the back and adapted'to rest against a part ofthe vehicle to which the device is to besecured. The plate 1 is soformed as to provide a depression 3 surrounded by an annular seat 4 forthe peripheralportion of a disk 5 of celluloid or other transparent orthey may partially transparent material. This disk is provided on itsface, preferably its rear face, with. a coating 6 of mildly luminousmaterial consisting of radio-sensitive material, such as zinc sulfidhaving combined therewith a radio-active material such as a salt ofradium in such quantity as will render the radio-sensitive materialmildly but permanently luminous in the dark. The shallow chamber formedby the depres- -sionB of the back plate will serve to prevent contact ofthe coated rear face of the disk with. the front face of the plate 1,and thus said'coating .will be protected.

The coated disk 5 is retained on its seat by means of a gasket 7 offiber, rubber or other suitable material, and said gasket is recessedtoreceive the edge portion of the disk and prevent lateral displacementof the same.

An identification plate or frame 8 is disposed in front 'of the coateddisk and is provided with lugs to overlie the lugs 2 of the back orframe plate. This plate or frame 8 may be made of com aratively thinsheet metal and has an opening 10 therein, the configuration of whichmay conform to the shape of an emblem of a branch of the militaryservice or other identifying symbol. In the drawing, I have shown theidentifying emblem or symbol in the form of a cross, but it will beunderstood that the emblem may represent a star or other or letters.

formed to receive a plain glass plate 11 disposed between said plate orframe 8 and gasket 7 to protect the luminous disk from injury and dirt.

The lugs 2 of the back plate 1 and the lugs 9 of the identificaton plateor frame 8 are perforated for the'pa'ssage of bolts 12,-

.each of which may be provided with a head 13 at one end threaded toreceive nuts 14, whereby the several parts are held together and ifdesired, washers 15 maybe dispose between the heads of said bolts andthe lugs 9. The bolts 12 also serve as means for se+ curing the devicetoa motortruck or other vehicle.

,." "i With the use of my improvement so positi'oned on a motor truck orother vehicle "'that maybe seen for a short distance from Theidentification plate or frame may be ion train colliding with anotherwill be avoided,

. for a suflicient distance to give information to the enemy, and by theemployment of the identification plate or frame which will give to theluminous area the configuration.

of an emblem or symbol, the identity of the vehicle may be readilydetermined.

Slight changes might be made in the details of construction of myinvention without departing from the spirit thereof or limiting itsscope and hence -I do not .wish to restrict myself to the precisedetails herein set forth. I

Having fully described my invention what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters-Patent, is

The combination with a frame plate, of a disk of transparent materialdisposed 'over said frame plate and having its major portion spaced fromsaid frame plate, said disk having its rear face coated with luminousmaterial and spaced from the frame plate whereby said coating will beprotected, a recessed gasket disposed on said frame plate and overlyingthe edge portion of the coated disk, a front plate having an openingformin a character designation and provided w1th a part overlying saidgasket, a transparent. plate disposed between said gasket and said front.plate, and means whereby the frame plate and front plate are securedtogether with the transparent coated disk,

gasket and transparent plate clamped between them.

In testimony whereof, I have signed this specification in the presenceof two subscribing witnesses.

WILLIAM .GANLEY. Witnesses

